Baker's Book 1

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As the examples drawn from our own comparative studies of bureaucrats and politicians in

Western countries democracies demonstrate, the U.S. administrative system is best understood

in a comparative context. . . . We not only understand our own systems better when we

compare, we gain a better understanding of the methods, concepts, and theories we em-

ploy. . . . The muddle of comparative administration may well be a hell, but one whose

suggested motto is abandon hope all ye who do not enter here! (Aberbach and Rockman

1988)

WHY THIS BOOK?

If only to appease the spirits of those departed trees sacrificed to produce a givenbook or article, authors and editors should be duty-bound to justify their addition to

Books in Print. The origins of this volume begin with attempts by a small group of

persons in the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration

(NASPAA), the professional accrediting body for public administration programs,

to bring the winds of international change into the curricula of the 230-plus member

institutions. That was, sad to say, a depressing experience since the indifference of

so many organizations to the geographical realities of the late-twentieth century

context of public life was, as the late Bill Siffin would have said, almost palpable.

Indeed, the international group quietly died from this lack of generalized support,

though NASPAA itself was always strongly supportive.

The reality is that it is not only President Clinton who has an agenda for

changethe world itself seems to be working with that agenda, and its impact on

U.S. public life is both comprehensive and accelerating dramatically. Publicadministration as a subject has long had a parochial cast, but even the most avowed

parochialist must be aware of some fairly radical forces at work in the local parish.

In Indiana, the economic mainstays and the revenue generators for public programs

1

Comparative Public Management:

Coming in From the Cold

Randall Baker

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include automobiles and automobile accessories, agriculture, steel, and

pharmaceuticals. Not one of these operates in a state, or even a U.S., context. The

talk is about European agricultural subsidies, Japanese penetration of the auto

market, the impending employment nemesis accompanying the North American

Free Trade Agreement NAFTA that includes Mexico, the dumping of East European

steel on the American market, wholesale illegal copying of patented drugs, and so

on. At the same time, even mid-sized communities are actively trying to promote

foreign investmentsome say by giving away the store through intrastate and

interstate competition.

It has long been recognized by political scientists and pundits, from Washingtons

farewell address onward, that foreign affairs feature last in the public ranking of the

top ten policy issues of the day. President Clinton, indeed, asserted that he would

return the country to a domestic agenda and won many votes on that score. The

political history of the United States is one of exceptionalism, a deep suspicion ofinternational entanglements and organizations (unless there was a veto possibility

involved), periodic retreats into isolation, and an increasingly pervasive ignorance

of geography.

The Orthodox Approach to Teaching Public Administration

A glance at almost any major text book in the field of public administration

reveals a conspicuous absence of the word American (or, more strictly, the words

United States). The connotation is that the contents are somehowgeneric, perhaps

perpetuating the ideas of Woodrow Wilson. Quite possibly this is not the intention.

The authors are, after all, writing for the U.S. market, and this assumption is

understood. On the other hand, after the last world war there was quite an industry

exporting public management to developing countries as though it really was ageneric commodity (Baker 1991).

Of course, U.S. public administration and public management are distinctly a

product of the culture and history of this country and no other. Furthermore, the U.S.

system is dramatically different from almost all others in developed democracies.

Rowat (1990) has shown this difference admirably relative to the overall size of the

bureaucracy in terms of the working population (18 percent in the United States, 33

percent in France, and 38 percent in Sweden), the differences in the size and

importance of different levels of government, the degree of decentralization (70

percent local and regional in the United States, 13 percent in Italy), relative growth

in the size of the public service (1.3 percent in the United States versus 23 percent

in Sweden 19511981), the relative importance of public corporations (50 percent

of public employment in the United Kingdom, and 8 percent in the United States),

and the nature and composition of the upper echelons. These differences inthemselves are interesting and should be an explicit part of the consideration of U.S.

public administration. Some writers have, however, pointed to this gulf between the

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U.S. public administration system and those in other developed democracies as areason for the lack of interest in comparative study:

I continue to think that the underlying reason for this decline [of comparative public

administration since the 1950s and 1960s] has been our own ethnocentrism in continuing to

view American public administration, and the truly exceptional solutions we have found for

coping with our peculiarly presidentialist problems, as a general paradigm for the field as a

whole. (Riggs 1991, 475)

Comparative study has never achieved center-stage status in the profession. In

contrast to the requirements of the business schools professional organization,

there is no professionalrequirementto feature anything comparative, or international

for that matter, in the core teaching of a professional masters degree. Where this

material has been offered at all, it has usually been within the context of a

concentration, optional courses, or some sort of minor. Its status is somewhat akin

to that of the environmental dimension in engineering degree programs some years

ago, until that profession finally woke up to the fact that the public would not tolerate

constructions that polluted and the fact that there was money in clean technology.

Apart from its peripheral, specialist status, comparative study is also generally

acknowledged, as Riggs observed above, to have been in decline for some time,

which is unfortunate now that the international and global pressures of the

environment, trade blocs, terrorism, AIDS, tourism, finance, communications, and

almost every other aspect of life have changed so dramatically. Later in this book,

two of the contributors, Ventriss and Ryan, show conclusively how international the

agenda has become, even at the state level, and some of the wrong-headed things

we are doing to react to this.

Herein lies the purpose, and we hope the value, of this book. We should not bereacting, we should be anticipating, and we need to understand that the people

graduating from public administration education programs are going to have their

greatest impact, perhaps, ten years from now. This means that we should be

equipping them for that world, not this years or last. In other words the comparative

component, and an exposure to an international agenda, are something that every

public official emerging from a public administration program should havenot

some favored few headed for the State Department or the Peace Corps. One of the

missions of this book is to make it undeniably clear just how far into the global

context we have moved, even if our curricula still owe allegiance to Harry Truman

and Ike.

A New and Revitalized Approach

The approach to comparative study should now be an integrative one. Ferrel

Heady (1984, 48) has written, It is neither necessary nor feasible to strive for

restoration of the degree of autonomy and separatism once characteristic of the

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burgeoning comparative public administration movement. Looking at the earlier

attempts to broaden the scope of our teaching, van Wart and Cayer (1990, 238)

observed that the major criticisms were that the field was too involved in the quest

for a comprehensive paradigm or metatheory, that it was not empirical enough, and

that it was too self-absorbed in academic concerns and insufficiently relevant.

The same pair of authors, reviewing the evidence presented in the leading

journals for a recent change of attitude and approach toward the comparative

context, observed the following characteristics:

[They] include a significant practitioner component, a substantial orientation toward policy

recommendations, a relative paucity of theory-testing studies, wide and mature coverage of

a range of studies, and methodological studies that seem slightly better than in the past, but

still far from ideal. The field as a whole, however, lacks features that give it clear identity (e.g.,

state-of-the-art critiques, methodological pieces, and broader, middle-range theorizing), and

thus the overall status of comparative public administration remains ambiguous. (Ibid. 238)

Another issue that lurks beneath the surface, closely related to the startling

pedagogical indifference to comparative and international material in the approved

core of degree programs, is the issue of tenure and promotion. A study conducted

by professor Larry Schroeder of the Maxwell School for NASPAAs now dormant

international activities section indicated clearly that younger faculty perceived,

rightly or wrongly, serious dangers in fooling with comparative fields before their

tenure was affirmed. Many thought that this was some sort of luxury reserved for

older, more secure faculty members. The general impression was that since this

material received no official recognition in accreditation or core course construction,

then it must be peripheral. In many cases they may well be wise to so believe. It is

not so long ago that a faculty member at Indiana Universitys School of Public and

Environmental Affairsone of the most international schools in the countrywas

advised not to mess around with this international study until the serious matter

of tenure was completed. The peripheral role is still the one that seems to prevail in

most institutions, forcing younger faculty to fit into the mold of the orthodoxy.

Heady stated the matter this way: . . . parochialism is a persistent dominant feature

of American public administration, evidenced in the curricula of institutions of

higher education and in the conduct of public administration by practicing

professionals (Heady 1987, 480).

THE APPROACH OF THIS BOOK

One of the principal concerns voiced at discussions about internationalizing

the curriculum for public administration at NASPAA was that there was no one to

teach this, especially in the smaller departments, and that there were no useful

books. The intention behind this book is that everyone can and should teach

comparative material. It is neither exotic, nor is it peripheral. As Bekke and others



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stated, Comparative analysis is integral to theory development and testing. It is

necessary for identification of key concepts, relations among concepts, and the

underlying logic or dynamic of the associations (Bekke et al. 1991, 28).

This book is intended as a vehicle that will allow all teachers to integrate some

comparative material into most of the major fields of public administration, or at

least understand why and how they should. The main purpose is to equip all public

servants with a new perspective on their own countrynot to make them authorities

on Sweden, Singapore, or some other place. For many years the business literature

ran article after article trying to discover the secret of the Japanese miracle, much

as they had done with the German miracle years earlier. The most accurate

conclusion from all this is that the secret of the Japanese miracle may be that they

are Japanese, and facile attempts at copying deny the reality of a U.S. cultural

context. We should, instead, be clear about what we do well, value, and feel we

should preserve. One of the best ways of understanding this is to examine how othersapproach the same problem, not that we may copy it, but that by making comparisons,

all sorts ofimplicitand underpinningcultural assumptions come out of the shadows.

This is as it should be. The secret of the American miracle may be revealed when

we finally realize that we are Americans, and ask what we do well and why that

works here. The main value of comparative study is to understand ourselves. Riggs

makes this point clearly in his chapter in this book, and presents this as a radical

revision in the thinking behind comparative study. It is also a profound reason why

comparative study should now be integral to all elements of the syllabus, finance,

management, policy, whatever.

What Comparative Study is Not

It is not the search for universal truths, generic culture-neutral models.

a vehicle to help us to copy.

descriptive; instead it is analytical. Articles about other places do not

necessarily qualify as comparative. We look instead for the analytical

underpinnings of comparison, and the utility of transferring policy and

practice across cultures.

a country a- and country b-type study that simply describes approaches

and practices from place to place apropos of nothing in particular.

The Structure and Purpose of the Book

The underlying purpose of this book is to provide, in one volume, the

following elements: the international context of public service in the United States.

an overview of the comparative approach.

comparative studies of different components of public administration as

taught in programs in the United Statesin effect: comparative modules.



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The International Context. In this section two authors demonstrate, in concrete

terms, the pervasive significance of the international context in all areas of public

administration. In one study, Ventriss uses the medium of international trade to

illustrate the profound degree to which this has a decisive impact on both national

and subnational levels, demonstrating a need for awareness at all levels. Ryan

explores the practical importance of a comparative agenda in the training of future

public servants by looking at the realities of what practitioners dowhich is

frequently distinctly international. Riggs, emphasizing his belief that comparative

study is a major tool for understanding the American system, presents a study of why

the bureaucracy has not assumed the smothering political role it has in other

presidential systems and highlights the unique historical and cultural qualities of

this countrys bureaucratic institutions and traditions. A concluding article by Baker

illustrates the malaise of public service in a developed state that has, until recently,

been denied democratic rights. This study is used to illustrate the crucial role ofdemocratic principles embodied, but possibly well hidden, in the operation of our

national bureaucracy.

The Comparative Approach. The strengths and pitfalls of the comparative

method over time are explored in this section by two authors approaching the subject

from a different perspective. Though this book is not devoted to theories of

government, it is necessary to present the state-of-the-art on the methods and utility

of the comparative approach. Making comparisons is fraught with problems of

definition, overlapping terminology, different roles for the state in a democracy, and

so forth. All too often the conceptual framework for comparative study has been

woolly or indefinable. Peters provides an exhaustive insight into the comparative

tradition and provides useful guidelines for the application of this dimension. He

examines many of the worrisome questions about how far we are looking at

universal management principles and practices, and how far at culture-specificaspects such as the role of the state, acceptable levels of taxation, the role of the

family, etc. Carrying these ideas forward, McGregor outlines a research agenda to

give comparative study of the public service more relevance and methodological

integrity in the future.

The Component Elements. In this final section authorities from different

recognized fields of public administration provide an examination of the comparative

element in each field. Each study provides a module that may be used to broaden

the dimensions of the course material taught within any conventional MPA or

related public administration degree in this country. We hope this takes care of the

questions, Who teaches this? and Where are the books?

Insinuating the comparative approach into the broad spectrum of the public

administration curriculum is but one element. Institutions may also pursue exchange

programs, the utilization of visiting overseas professionals and academics (to talkabout the United States and not just their home country), creative use of international

students, and other avenues. But until full recognition of the value of comparative

study shows up in the baseline requirements for the professional degree, and as a



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fully recognized legitimate area of study for tenure purposes, I fear we are dealing

with little more than lip service.

This book was deliberately called Comparative Public Managementto stress

its applied and practical nature. Managementis also a word that carries with it

connotations of dynamism and the need to anticipate and respond to change. Ours

is a world in which change is the order of the day, and sometimes it appears that the

pace of change is itself moving along an exponential curve. On the other hand, the

use of the term management must not be taken to imply any crude idea that

government is a businessfor it is not.

The authors of this book are concerned with the way in which problems are

tackled, rights defended, society advanced, and the earth protected around the

globe. Consider, for instance, what is happening in the health field. In Britain the

nanny state is finding itself financially unable to bear the burden of supporting a

universal health system. In the United States the concern is about the states inactionsince more than 30 million people, supposedly, are without health insurance. Are

these two nations facing different crises, or are they converging toward some

practical middle ground of state involvement in health-care delivery? Most

developed democracies are facing tax revolts and are coping with AIDS, privatization,

footloose capital, aging populations, and many other common phenomena. All too

often these are perceived as national issues amenable only to national solutions.

Deliberately we have held our frame of reference to the developed democracies,

for once we move outside it, many other variables start to assume critical importance,

and these modules will be much harder to teach. For many students the move to a

radically different (National Geographic class, as one student put it) cultural

context may result in all comparisons being rendered inoperative because there is

no way for the student to relate to the society involvedat least without deeper

instruction than the typical Master of Public Administration program could provide.Again, this should not be taken as saying that developing democracies require

fundamentally different principles, concepts, and methods. It is just that the

preoccupation of the earlier comparative movement with developmentleft many in

the teaching profession out of the picture. At one astonishing annual meeting of the

American Society of Public Administration held in Miami not too long ago, there

was a two-day development jamboree held before the conference. On the other hand

there was almost nothing to reflect the multiethnic workforce, or the culture of

public administration in the subsequent main program, even though the whole event

was inMiami! In the face of such cultural insensitivity, what hope has comparative

awareness?

Our focus, as we have stated, is to put the United States center stage, for it is

there that the vast majority of the students will inevitably work. Incidentally the

predominance of the U.S. job market was often used in the past as a reason for notmessing with the international dimension. While we are so wrapped up right now

in the need to reinvent government, it is sad to note that the principal work on this

subject, and most of the political rhetoric since, continues to be stalwartly parochial.



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We seem to be on the eve of a true millenniuma world in which new territorial

polities emerge for which there is no precedent, such as the European Community.

It is also a world in which global phenomena, such as ozone depletion or the

possibility of global warming, produce consequences that are global. This stretches

our comfortable concepts of national sovereignty to the limits, and perhaps beyond.

Future public administrators may live not only in an increasingly international and

global context, but in a world in which shared sovereignty becomes a reality in some

fields.

The comparative element is a context. Rather than thinking of it as a field, or

subfield, it should be thought of as an essential dimension of all parts of the basic

curriculum. It is true that some of the larger schools and programs may also support

a specialized concentration, but that should be in addition to the first line of attack.

In fact anything that creates the illusion that comparative and international study is

different can be misleading because it goes against the contextual approach. In1947 Dahl stated, As long as public administration is not comparative, claims for

a science of public administration sound rather hollow. Nothing has changed the

relevance of this remark in the intervening 45 or so years.

REFERENCES

Aberbach, J. D., and B. A. Rockman. 1988. Problems of Cross-National Comparison. In

Public Administration in Developed Democracies: A Comparative Study, ed. D. C.

Rowat. New York: Marcel Dekker, 419440.

Baker, R. 1991. The Role of the State and the Bureaucracy in Developing Countries Since

the War. In Handbook of Comparative and Development Administration, ed. A.

Farazmand. New York: Marcel Dekker, 353367.

Bekke, H., J. L. Perry, and Th. A. J. Toonen. 1991. The Need for Comparative Research on

Civil Service Systems. Conference on comparative civil service systems, Leiden/

Rotterdam, October (unpublished).

Dahl, R. A. 1947. The Science of Public Administration. Public Administration Review

7:111.

Heady, F. 1984. Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective. New York: Marcel

Dekker.

_____. 1987. Comparative Public Administration in the United States. In A Centennial

History of the American Administrative State, ed. R. Candler. New York: Free Press.

Riggs, F. W. 1991. Public Administration: A Comparativist Framework. Public

Administration Review 51(6).

Rowat, D. C. 1990. Comparing Bureaucracies in Developed and Developing Countries: A

Statistical Analysis.International Review of Administrative Sciences 56:211236.

van Wart, M., and N. J. Cayer. 1990. Public Administration: Defunct, Dispersed, or

Redefined? Public Administration Review 50.


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